Laudanum is a drug based on opium. It is a tincture containing almost all of the opium alkaloids, including morphine and codeine. Its use dates back to the 16th Century, and Paracelsus. It is a highly potent narcotic and extremely addictive. Laudanum was used to treat a variety of ailments until the 20th Century. Today it is usually referred to as ‘tincture of opium’, and can still be prescribed in countries such as the USA and Britain.

Thus drug was used to treat coughs, sleeplessness, diarrhoea, and pain, including menstrual cramping, but as Wikipedia confirms, it was “widely prescribed for ailments from colds to meningitis to cardiac diseases”. It was routinely used for children, and widely used in epidemics of cholera, dysentery and yellow fever in the 19th Century, and also for diseases such as dropsy (Oedema), consumption (TB) and rheumatism.

•dizziness, faintness, lightheadedness when getting up from a lying or sitting position

•drowsiness to profound coma

•fast heartbeat

•hallucination

•headache

•increased hunger

•increased sweating

•irregular, fast or slow, or shallow breathing

•lethargy

•lightheadedness

•mood or other mental changes

•nervousness

•nightmares

•no blood pressure or pulse

•no muscle tone or movement

•not breathing

•pale or blue lips, fingernails, or skin

•seizures

•shakiness

•shortness of breath

•slow or irregular heartbeat

•slurred speech

•stopping of heart

•swelling in legs and ankles

•unconsciousness

•unusual tiredness or weakness

•Itching skin

•redness of skin

•skin rash

So the 20th Century has seen the use of Laudanum much proscribed, despite its well known DIEs (Disease Inducing Effects), it can still be prescribed within conventional medicine! I have already mentioned Gees Linctus.

Side effects given on a packet of Gee’s Linctus include nausea, sickness, constipation, drowsiness, confusion , loss of appetite, diarrhoea, stomach pain, shortage of breath, difficulty in urinating, skin itching and flushing, rash, low blood pressure. And “prolonged use may lead to tolerance (the medicine loses its effect) and dependence’.

Not much changes, then, including the willingness of the conventional medical establishment to continue giving us harmful and dangerous drugs, even for the consumptions of our children!